BNP Paribas sees sponsorship as a long-lasting commitment, the main priority being to provide assistance for the duration of a project which fits with the Group's values.

This year the BNP Paribas Foundation continues the partnership established in 2006 with dancer and choreographer Abou Lagraa, providing support for his latest projects.

Together with his company and the Algerian Ministry of Culture, the choreographer is working on a Cultural Bridge Across the Mediterranean (Pont Culturel Méditerranéen) to be completed in the coming months. Born out of Abou Lagraa's deeply held wish to share his experiences of and passion for Algeria, the Bridge will be a three-year programme to encourage cultural cooperation between France and Algeria in the art of choreography: three years of exchanging ideas, training, creating and working together.

This project is based on the belief that increasing cultural exchanges will contribute to mutual understanding and strengthen the already strong ties between the two countries.

In 2010, the fruits of this collaboration include the creation of a cell for contemporary choreography at the Algerian National Ballet. The group is made up of 20 hip-hop dancers recruited through nationwide auditions of Algeria's talented youngsters. Nya, Abou Lagraa's next creation, will be a great opportunity for them to show the public a more accurate representation of young people in Algeria today: diverse, inquisitive and unconventional.Nya, an Arabic word meaning ‘a trust in life', will be a show whose musical universe depicts the French and Algerian collective memory and leads to a dream-like voyage between the two coasts of this Cultural Bridge Across the Mediterranean.

>> To find out more, visit the official website of Abou Lagraa's company, Baraka.